Modern communications demand higher data rates and performance. Multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) antenna systems, also known as multiple-element antenna (MEA) systems, achieve greater spectral efficiency for allocated radio frequency (RF) channel bandwidths by utilizing space or antenna diversity at both the transmitter and the receiver, or in other cases, the transceiver. In MIMO systems, each of a plurality of data streams (or layers) is individually mapped and modulated before being precoded and transmitted by different physical antennas or effective antennas. The combined data streams are then received at multiple antennas of a receiver. At the receiver, each data stream is separated and extracted from the combined signal. This process can be performed, for example, using a maximum likelihood MIMO detection algorithm, or a minimum mean squared error (MMSE) MIMO algorithm. A key requirement for any MIMO detection algorithm is the knowledge of the MIMO channel (channel at all the different layers) at the receiver. Typically, the receiver obtains these estimates using the received samples at known pilot symbol locations, employing for example, a MMSE algorithm.